Peter LaBarbera and Linda Harvey are on their neverending Warren Throckmorton witchhunt again.  It must be one of the most painful things in the world to be the Last Bigots Standing, but Pete and Linda bring it upon themselves, so no pity!  Hold your nose, we’re going to have Linda time now:

A broad coalition of pro-family groups recommends that parents keep their children home on the deceptive, pro-homosexual “Day of Silence,” to be observed this year on April 16, 2010, but one “gay”-affirming counselor started what he calls the “Golden Rule Pledge” instead.

Yet, the “Golden Rule Pledge” actually functions as a disinformation tool and a divisive wedge in schools and among Christians. It is insidiously misleading and would bring harm to kids. It grieves me to take this position, but there’s no choice, because lives are at stake.

That’s right, Linda.  Lives ARE at stake!  Gay kids attempt and commit suicide at a much higher rate than the rest of the population because of the pig ignorant bile you leave everywhere.

[Warren Throckmorton] has expressed his preference for students remaining in school on the “Day of Silence” and hearing pro-homosexual propaganda, and learning to sympathize with those practicing these behaviors, rather than taking an unequivocal, biblical stand against these harmful practices by remaining home.

Refer to post title.

Throckmorton doesn’t even like the Exodus-sponsored “Day of Truth,” which encourages kids to remain in school and have a frank conversation, in love, with friends while presenting the biblical view of homosexuality. Throckmorton calls this “offensive.”

Well, why would he like the “Day of Truth,” since the people who sponsor it value actual, verifiable truth like pedophiles value children?

Throckmorton’s support of the “Day of Silence” will do incalculable harm to many young people. Misleading professionals like Throckmorton in positions of influence can make our sons and daughters become comfortable with entering into, staying in, or approving of homosexuality, bisexuality and gender change.

Wrong!  Again, we deal with actual truth, not “I hide my bigotry behind Bible verses I don’t understand” truth.  Helping make our sons and daughters comfortable with their biology, their sexual orientation, and helping them along the path of healthy development is a GOOD thing.  And guess what?  I can point to tons of high school kids who are living this reality right now.  Meanwhile, Linda continues to have nothing more than some bur in her nether regions that she inexplicably blames on gay people.

If I were a parent who discovered my minor child had been counseled in this way, I’d bring the largest and most aggressive medical malpractice suit I could launch against this counselor at Grove City.

Well, to be fair, no one accused you of being a good mother, Linda.

Jesus would never make a person feel more comfortable about:

• Young males having sex with males, the incidence of which rose over 12 % per year between 2001 and 2006 among males ages 13 to 24 1;
• Young “lesbians” choosing a fatherless life for any future children, since they can never conceive children with female partners;
• Hoping in such relationships for a false “marriage” in violation of Matthew 19:4-6 and Mark 10:6-9, where Christ told us that “from the beginning” people were created male and female, and that one man and one woman form a marriage;
• Teens and even younger children believing they should change genders. As with homosexuality, we should be doing everything possible to counsel these kids and prevent these behaviors among youth.

I could swear up and down that because Curious George doesn’t refer to the Man in the Yellow Hat owning any other color hats, that’s because other colors are evil, and I could swear up and down that Curious George was written by a supreme deity, but I’d still be a malevolent bigot, hiding behind a book.

And yes, it’s the same.  For that matter, you don’t know what Jesus would say, because he ain’t here, and he didn’t see fit to discuss these subjects.  Although there’s a strong case to be made that he was confronted with men he knew to be in a sexual relationship with each other, and didn’t have a word to say about it.  AND, there were gender variant people all over the Bible, and Jesus didn’t seem to have an issue with that either.  AND, since medical science is indeed figuring out that people are born with brains that are gendered in a way that doesn’t match their physical gender, AND since medical science should theoretically be considered by Christians to be the study of God’s wondrous creation, Christians should be the first to get on board with its findings.

Game, set, match, crazy cat lady.*

As the piece continues, Linda takes issue with the Golden Rule itself:

Hmmm. “…The way I want to be treated.” So, if a student is about to enter, or has entered, a high-risk practice that is called an abomination by our Lord, and has shared this with classmates, a “true” Christian should attend school to support a day that affirms this behavior and scorns any warnings to that student? Some friendship!

Here’s a biblically-based alternative: “Friends don’t let friends do homosexuality!”

Uh, actually, Linda, since you have no proof for anything you say (not the high-risk part, not the abomination part), actually you’re just a malevolent woman who feels she has a right to impose her backwards worldview on innocent children.  Perhaps the admonition should be “Friends don’t leave their children with lying Fundamentalists.”

I wouldn’t leave my kids with a deranged imam, and I certainly wouldn’t leave them with Linda Harvey.

No, the “Day of Silence” is about propaganda. The goal is to shame and label Christians and tradition-minded students and teachers, silence their authentic witness, and even silence any public health warnings. Real safety would be to scream from the rooftops about the harm homosexuality or gender change will bring to these young lives. And since no one is born homosexual, these desires are demonstrably changeable, so no one is left without a positive alternative.

My god, these people never show their work.  Show me how monogamous sex between two same gendered individuals is harmful, please?  Show me how safer-sex practices work for straight people, but not for gay people?  And then show me how transgender people expressing their appropriate gender in whatever way they choose is harmful.  And then show me your proof that people aren’t born gay.  (And don’t give me that unscientific crap about how no “gay gene” has been found yet.  A first year student of genetics, even from a Christian school, could explain how stupid that argument is.)  And then show me all the people who have “demonstrably changed” their sexual orientation.  I mean, even John Smid is now admitting that he’s still into dudes.  They all do, eventually.

This is such a travesty that if we were all ancient Israelites, we’d be rending our clothing and putting on sackcloth and ashes!

Really, she just said that.  But since Linda’s not an ancient Israelite, she’s going to stick with the frumpy separates and wild and crazy pink headband she got at TJ-Maxx last week.

Please join me in praying for Warren Throckmorton, for his repentance, and also for his duplicitous dealings to be revealed so no further harm is done to our precious and impressionable kids.

And please help me pray that the emotionally manipulative “Day of Silence” is revealed for what it is — adults exploiting precious kids.

Uh, no thanks.  We’ll stick with the reality-based world that Warren is becoming more of a part of every single day.

*No, I do not have any personal knowledge of how many cats Linda Harvey has.  My educated guess is “47.”

Truth Wins Out’s research team revealed today that an alleged split in July 2009 between Exodus International and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) may only be cosmetic. While PFOX is no longer listed as an Exodus referral agency on Exodus’ website, the groups appear heavily enmeshed.

TWO has found that nearly one-quarter (22-percent) of PFOX chapters are actually Exodus member ministries. The cross-over ministries include:

Wisconsin’s Reclamation Ministries, South Carolina’s New Song Ministries, Oklahoma’s First Stone Ministries, New Mexico’s LifeMor ministries, Missouri and Illinois’ Pure Heart Ministries, and Florida’s Family Ties Ministries.

“Despite their public divorce, Exodus and PFOX appear to be very much in bed together,” said Wayne Besen, Executive Director of Truth Wins Out.”These groups should be honest and admit the true extent of their working relationship.”

There is one other possibility. PFOX may be falsely listing Exodus ministries as PFOX chapters in order to mislead the public into thinking the organization is larger than it actually is.

In July 2009, Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) broke away from Exodus International – or perhaps it was the other way around. The details remain murky. They were supposedly split over strategy, with PFOX couching its bizarre arguments in civil rights language.

For example, they want “ex-gays” to be included in laws that protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Exodus, simply wants gay people not to be covered by such laws. There was also Exodus’ concern over PFOX’s judgment in placing quack “therapist” Richard Cohen on television.

By now, the world knows that Arthur Abba Goldberg was a big-time crook. After he left prison and his parole was up, he founded Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality (JONAH). He also became a major player in the National Association for Research and Therapy for Homosexuality (NARTH) During his decade-long tenure he never revealed his sordid past.

He hid by slyly dropping the “Abba” from his soiled name. For 10 years, he has posed as a moral paragon and paraded himself around the nation as an “expert” on homosexuality. The truth is, he is just an ex-con up to his same old tricks. Except this time, his con game is “curing” LGBT people.

Today, I went into the bowels  of a musty New Jersey library to retrieve old copies of The Record (Bergen) from 1989. I had to use microfiche, giving me flashbacks of my high school investigative reporting classes.  Below is a crook photo of Goldberg from the July 18, 1989 issue of The Record under the headline, “SWINDLE: Bond Whiz Admits Guilt in $2B Fraud.”

The sub-headline is “Abracadabra is No Houdini.”

Sadly, Goldberg and his apologists are already spinning his criminality and moral turpitude. They are saying that his appalling past is being distorted by gay activists. And, they are claiming that his crimes are minor…..because we ALL know someone who tried to steal $2 billion dollars. More on that another time. For now just enjoy the newspaper clips.

(Arthur Abba Goldberg’s original article is HERE)

By: Erez Harari

“If you want to be gay, gey gezunta heit (you should live and be well)”

This catchphrase, coined by Arthur Goldberg of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) is used to illustrate that his “reparative therapy” organization believes that individuals who “choose” to be gay have every right to do so, just as an individual has a right to choose to “change”.

However, a recent article written by Arthur Goldberg on Arutz Sheva (a national Israeli news station) belies the disingenuousness of this message when Arthur lambasted a recent Yeshiva University event entitled “Being Gay in the Orthodox World”. This event was intended to illustrate some of the struggles, both internal and external, that Orthodox Jews have when trying to negotiate their religious and sexual identities (videos of the event are on vimeo.com, search: “YU gay panel”).

The purpose of the event was solely to raise awareness and tolerance, and it was explicitly stated that the event would not address halachah (Jewish law), reparative therapy, or the biological vs. social nature of sexual orientation. It was merely a chance for people to share their personal, often heart wrenching, stories about growing up gay in the Orthodox Jewish community.

This message was completely lost on Arthur Goldberg, who works with individuals “struggling with unwanted same-sex attractions” on a daily basis.

He begins his article by stating that the program “illustrates a classic strategy designed to manipulate Jews”. He clearly  twists a simple plea for awareness and sensitivity into some sort of nefarious plot concocted by individuals with sinister ulterior motives. He then suggests that the panelists, a group of four Yeshiva University alums in their 20s, some of whom only came out within the past year or two, were “clever purveyors of a propaganda effort to alter attitudes within the Orthodox community”.

It’s surprising that raising awareness of the fact that homosexuality exists in the Orthodox community and encouraging sensitivity towards homosexuals is turned into a bad thing. No one violates Torah law by being nice to people.

Arthur claims that members of the “ex-gay” community were denied an opportunity to speak on the panel. This is blatantly false. The panel was comprised exclusively of Yeshiva University students and alumni and Arthur was denied a spot on the panel because he is not an alumnus. (Read More)

Ex-Gay Watch reports that convicted con artist Arthur Abba Goldberg, who dropped the “Abba” in his name and co-founded JONAH in 1999, is trying to create yet another false identity by manipulating the wikipedia website. His latest assumed name is Arthur “Avrum” Goldberg.” Here is what Ex-Gay Watch had to say:

However, in what seems too coincidental to be such, the longstanding “Arthur A. Goldberg” in the Wikipedia article about JONAH was changed to “Arthur Avrum Goldberg” on February 8th.  The editor goes by the name of Ann Jonah.

Avrum is Yiddish for Abraham, which in turn means “father of nations” or father in general to the Jews.  Abba also means father and so we think Goldberg is being cleverly deceptive here.  We also think we know why this edit was made several days before the current story hit.  This post will be updated once confirmed.

Apparently, a con artist just can’t stop conning, even when the jig is up. It is almost amusing to watch Goldberg’s useless machinations on his wiki page, even as the story of his true identity goes viral on the Internet. Arthur Abba Goldberg is clearly the “father” of falsehoods.

There is still no public statement from Goldberg. He is still manipulating and maneuvering behind the scenes like a trapped wet rat. I suggest he come out of the convict closet and admit he is a snake oil salesman. No matter how hard he tries, he will not be able to rewrite history.

Good As You has the videos if you want to watch.

Highlights if you don’t want to sit through it, and I wouldn’t blame you:

(My editorial comments/snarkage in parentheses.)

Mat Staver makes unfunny wingnut jokes about Al Gore and snowstorms.  Introduces Alan Chambers.  (Jazz hands!) Alan Chambers makes unfunny wingnut jokes about Al Gore and snowstorms.* He reminds the people that Jesus died for wicked meanie gays too.  Gives history of Exodus which notably does not include all the various “ex-gays” who now acknowledge that they were gay the whole time.  Says “success” for Exodus would be for Exodus to go out of business.  (Concur!)    Three practical steps for Christians to reach out to the gays:

1.  Get educated! Acknowledges that it’s hard to say this at Liberty University. (Because actual education does not happen there?)  Acknowledges that they dropped the “change is possible” lingo, due to their lack of success, in a roundabout way.  Says he wishes there was a step-by-step process, but he hasn’t found one.  Gets confused about how many years he’s been Not Gay Anymore.  Acknowledges that he will always be tempted by gayness, without saying it explicitly.  But God gave him the power to deny who he really is!  (Jazz hands!)  Acknowledges that fundamentalist Christians don’t do well debating their anti-gay position, but doesn’t make the obvious connection that that happens because they don’t have the facts on their side.  Acknowledges that “gay activists” tend to know the Bible better than fundamentalist Christians.  (True! Also knowing more about the Bible than fundamentalists?  Atheists.) “Ignorance will render us ineffective.”  (True!  But ignorance envelops your entire worldview, Alan!)  Whoa, then the outline gets complex:

Five myths about gayness:

A.  ”Homosexuality is the worst sin of all!” God hates lots of stuff worse than gays!  And he hates all y’all’s sins worse than gayness!  Gays are bitter because Christians haven’t been Christlike toward gays.  (TRUE!  But sugarcoating hate and being nicer doesn’t actually make you any less hateful.  It just makes you more deceitful, Alan.)

B.  ”Homosexuality is a choice SLASH isn’t a choice!” Apparently it’s a myth whichever way you say it!  Teaches the people that nobody chooses to be gay.  Says the truth is that he would never have chosen to be gay.  Says he has never met anyone who WOULD choose it.  (Hello, Alan, I’m Evan.  If I had it to do all over again, and I was given the choice, I would choose to be gay.  Yes.)  Says that to say it’s NOT a choice is wrong too!  He says he “decided” to see what the gayness was about!  Decided to “get involved” in homosexuality!  (Signed up on the sign-up sheet, auditioned, got cast repeatedly in the chorus, never in a speaking part, got bitter.)  Likes to use the word “decision” rather than “choice.”  Translation:  Alan didn’t choose to be gay, but he decided to pretend that he isn’t anymore.

C.  ”Homosexuality is all about sex.” See, it’s right there in the word “homoSEXuality.”  Homosexuality is instead about “trying to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.”  Alan’s dad is his hero, wants to be like him, but he didn’t know how to be a Dad, so Alan…became gay?  WTF.  Alan truly believes that he’s gay because he was looking for someone to love him.  Says he wasn’t looking for “mutuality.”  (What, then, would Alan say about the millions of gays and lesbians who don’t have such hard knock sad sack stories about their emotionally distant fathers, and who actually, simply, are looking for/have found mutuality in their same-gender spouses?  HOLE IN YOUR ARGUMENT, CHAMP.) Says he was looking to fill the hole left by his father with a man’s love, which led to wanting to have sex with men, but he didn’t want to have sex with his dad, but the need for the love of a man became sexualized because?  Oh, no reason!  (Fail, Jazz hands, Fail.)**

D.  ”Homosexuality is determined by one thing.” There is not a gay demon!  (Of course there is.  I call him Giorgio.)  Acknowledges that there have been “counseling practices” that have hurt many people.  (Exodus?)  ”Why does it matter whether gayness is genetic?”  Alan says it doesn’t matter.  Compares it to alcoholism, kleptomania, rage, obesity, cancer…so even if gayness is genetic, it doesn’t make it right!  (Yes but how does homosexuality hurt people, Alan?  Show your work and prove that it’s actually the sexuality that caused the hurt.)  ”Does research and science trump the word of God?”  Says that they don’t.  (HOLE IN YOUR ARGUMENT, ALAN:  If we accept that the word of God represents reality, and research and science are explorations of reality, then research and science should confirm said “word of God,” and if it doesn’t, you only have two choices:  1.  See if you’ve been misinterpreting the text, in light of reality.  2.  Consider the possibility that the word of God is imaginary.)  If Rogaine is strong enough to conquer lady baldness, then Jesus is strong enough to conquer Teh Gay!  (Going to have to see the peer-reviewed study on that one, Chambers.)  Alan “wraps up this point” by saying that homosexuality is “multi-causal,” but please understand that he did not spend one minute in the last section proving this point.  Outline fail, Jazz Hands.

E.  ”The opposite of homosexuality is heterosexuality.” Alan prayed for years and years for God to make him straight, but He didn’t.  (God fail.)  Alan says he is more normal than his brothers and sisters.  (Steer clear of the Chambers clan, is the moral here.)  Alan’s journey wasn’t out of homosexuality (TRUE!), but “to the cross.”  (Yes, but!  Many gay Christians have also made that journey without renouncing an integral part of their being.)  Acknowledges that he still thinks guys are hot (that he’s “tempted”) again.  But says that everybody is tempted!  Says that 40% of the people who look for help from Exodus are married already.  Says you can’t hide from your gayness in marriage.  (TRUE!)  Can people become straight, though?  Alan says yes!  He thinks his wife is downright snazzy!  But his marriage isn’t about heterosexuality! (Heh.)  It was about “mutuality” and a “conglomeration of God’s best!”  (Sounds like V-Day’s gonna be HOT at the Chambers house.)  Says he will always be attracted to guys, but it doesn’t affect his marriage.  (HUH?  Let me tell you something about straight women, Alan, ‘kay?  Straight women are not fulfilled by husbands who actually, in reality, are into guys.  Just so you know.)

2. Finally back into his “three points.”  Evaluate your attitude.  Stop being so mad, you guys!  Says they all get mad too much and have bad attitudes. (Concur!)  Says that if people aren’t angry about “things” that “happen,” then they’re not paying attention!  It’s just like the story of Jonah or something.  You see, God thought it would be funny to deal with Jonah’s poor attitude by letting him get eaten by a whale.  Then he preached a bad sermon?  I don’t know. Gays probably should hate fundamentalists, says Alan!  (We don’t hate you, Alan, we just want you to know that you can be free from your fundamentalist self-loathing.)  Says gay jokes aren’t funny.  ”God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve” isn’t funny, it just makes you look like a buffoon, says Alan. (TRUE!)

3.  Evangelize.  Five keys to evangelizing to gays, oh god.  (I am so missing men’s speed skating for this.  I expect gift cards.):

A.  ”It’s all about relationships!” Develop a relationship with people before you tell them they’re going to hell!  (See what I mean when I say “trying to be nicer and sugarcoating hate doesn’t make hate less real, just more deceptive?”  Yeah.  And a worldview that preaches that entire classes of people are going to hell is inherently hateful.  Sorry, fundies!)

B.  Be vulnerable! If you want to change a gay, you need to tell them about how you have a hard time with stuff, too!  (I’m paraphrasing, heavily, yet keeping the spirit of the original text.)  Do you have stories to share about your anorexia, your divorce, your porn stash, your tawdry affair, your drug habit, etc.  TELL A GAY!

C.  Don’t place your timeframe on others. Don’t put gays on a schedule!  If you give them a timetable, then the terrorists will just wait until you leave?

D.  Focus on what’s most important. Don’t debate with gays over whether or not they’re Christians, if they say they are.  WAIT ‘TIL LATER, if they refuse to hate themselves for being gay.  If they’re not Christians anyway, maybe you shouldn’t talk about homosexuality anyway.  Just proselytize about Jesus.  ”Straight people go to hell too!”

Some time passes, because I had to hit pause on the video and go refill my drink because I was laughing so hard at that quote.

Okay, back!

E. You gotta have a plan! Some story about “Church of the open sore” or something.  Leper colony?  Derno.  Watching downhill skiing now.  Church is for everybody, not just for dirty gays.  ”Sin doesn’t happen in a vacuum.”  Walk alongside your adopted gays! He’s not talking about how to make plans or anything, so I guess he just needed a fifth point.

And he’s done!  Finally!  See, now you don’t have to sit through an hour of Jazzhands McGay.

YOU’RE WELCOME.

*For any who are unclear, here is how snowstorms happen:  Warm moist air from one area collides with cold air from another area.  Snow results.  Therefore!  Warmer years produce crazier snowstorms!  Ta-da.  It’s actually really elementary, but you have to pay attention in school, or, you know, go to a school that teaches science.  Also, it helps if you’re not an easily led wingnut.

**It’s only been in recent years that men in our society have been given permission to show emotion, to drop the societal expectations that a father must always be stoic, etc.  The truth of the matter is that if you’re a man around Alan Chambers’ age, chances are that your dad was probably kind of distant, authoritarian, etc.  It was simply the accepted societal construct.  I might also add that it’s been like that in Abrahamic religious tradition pretty much since the inception of each religion.  So why isn’t everybody gay, Alan?  Seriously.  I can think of two grandfathers in my own family who were notoriously distant, from everything I’ve heard.  By Alan’s “theory,” all of their male offspring should’ve been gay.  Not the case.

I was impressed with British journalist Patrick Strudwick’s report in The Independent, “The ex-gay files: The bizarre world of gay-to-straight conversion.” It was an important addition to the literature and I respect his work.

His reporting is an accurate representation of “ex-gay” therapy and echos the abusive practices I witnessed in my book, “Anything But Straight: Unmasking the Scandals and Lies Behind the Ex-Gay Myth.” Strudwick began his article with the alarming news of the extent “ex-gay” therapy has spread in the United Kingdom:

According to a report by Professor Michael King of University College London, one in six UK psychiatrists and psychotherapists have sought to reduce or change a patient’s sexual orientation. And with the help of the American conversion therapy movement, practitioners here, along with a clutch of international “conversion” organisations, are becoming co-ordinated and unified. They plan to gain credibility, university backing and government funding. In some cases, the NHS is even paying for the treatment.

The journalist also made the smart connection between these programs and political power:

After the conference I look David up online. As I’m researching his practice and qualifications, I see a reference to Iris Robinson, the scandal-stricken Ulster MP who in 2008 famously compared homosexuality to child abuse. In an interview with the BBC, she mentioned she knew a “lovely psychiatrist” who “tries to help homosexuals to run away from what they are engaged in.”

Strudwick pointed out how they twist language to make it appear like homosexuality is a mental illness:

Like those at the conference, she doesn’t say “gay”; she only uses the term “SSA”.*

The writer highlights how these quacks ignore the inconvenient fact that homosexuality has not been listed as a  mental disorder for three decades and mislead clients:

I ask how she (Lynne, the therapist) views homosexuality – as a mental illness, an addiction or an anti-religious phenomenon?

“It’s all of that,” she replies.

Lynne explains that it’s about “reprogramming” and going back into my early developmental stages. “Parts of you have developed but there is a little part of you that has stayed stuck,” she says.

Oh, like being retarded?

“It is a bit like that,” she agrees.

(Read More)

No one seems to want to touch the daunting task of defending Scott Lively** with a ten foot pole, but Don Feder thinks The New York Times should really stop being so mean to his buddy Don Schmierer.  In this piece, he quotes Larry Jacobs of the World Congress of Families regarding Schmierer’s excursion to Uganda:

Don Schmierer and two other evangelicals from the United States spoke in Uganda last March.  In the course of their remarks, they discussed the ability of individuals to mend broken family relationships, change destructive behaviors, and to leave the homosexual lifestyle.  Claiming their pro-family advocacy provoked anger, which led to the introduction of the Ugandan legislation,The Times charged, “You can’t preach hate and not accept responsibility for the way that hate is manifested.”

Jacobs responded: “Don Schmierer is a gentle counselor and an inspired teacher with more than four decades of experience in helping people overcome addictions, rebuild their lives, repair their relationships and restore their families.  Don provides wise counsel and advice for parents, with special insights on the relationships of fathers and their sons.  Because he believes in a Biblical worldview and thinks homosexuality is not genetic, The Times insists that he’s responsible for the Ugandan legislation, (a proposed law categorically denounced by every pro-family leader I’m aware of and Don himself).”

“Anyone that spends time listening to Schmierer or reading his materials, can easily see that his entire ministry is built on loving and helping homosexuals (and heterosexuals), not hating them.  As Don says himself, some of the nicest people he’s met around the world have been homosexuals.  After each of Don’s presentations, many homosexuals offer their thanks for his wise counsel and testimonies on how his guidance helped them.”

In other words, “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!  SHE’S BEEN THROUGH SO MUCH!“

Right.

First of all, it’s not Schmierer’s beliefs about gay people that we’re concerned with.  Being an American means that you are free to be as ignorant as you please.  We’re concerned with his actions.  Secondly, Don Schmierer’s entire life’s mission is directly in contrast to “loving and helping homosexuals.”  Ex-gay leaders love homosexuals like pedophiles love The Jonas Brothers.  Thirdly, did Schmierer, as quoted by Jacobs, really use the “some of the nicest people I’ve met have been homosexuals” construction?  I know that old white people can be really dumb about these sorts of things, but that statement is, in and of itself, bigoted.  Growing up in the South, I cannot tell you how many times I’ve heard an older white person say “I’m not racist, some of my best friends are black!”, as if it’s some sort of accomplishment.  Schmierer’s quote is the same construction, just updated for the purposes of discriminating against gay people.  He might as well have said, “We don’t think he deserves any rights, but we love our interior designer, and he’s a homosexual!”  Finally, who are we supposed to think the “many homosexuals” are who savor Schmierer’s loving guidance?  Because I know “many homosexuals,” and I don’t know one who would bear the indignity of listening to such drivel for any purposes besides mocking or monitoring the opposition.

Feder also quotes Jacobs saying this:

“The Times ugly attack on Schmierer is typical of the growing movement to intimidate and ultimately silence any who dissent from the gay agenda, including the activists working to preserve marriage.  Instead of discussing the nature and consequences of homosexuality, The New York Times says the debate is closed, and any who object, hate homosexuals and want to harm them.”

Well, the debate really is closed, at least in well-informed nations.***  When you have a struggle between opposing worldviews where exactly one side can defend its claims without resorting to age-old bigotry, discrimination, dogma and appeals to faulty translations of unprovable religious claims, you end up where we are now.  We still have to keep plugging away to correct their lies about the “nature and consequences” of homosexuality for as long as their ideas still hold sway over portions of the population, but we know, by looking at the data, that their discriminatory propaganda reaches fewer and fewer people in the West every year.  Welcome to 2010.  Put more bluntly:  We’re very sorry your ideas are laughable to rational people and, quite frankly, suck, but that’s really not our problem, and it’s not The New York Times’ problem.

Don Schmierer is a sentient being, as far as we know, and he made a conscious choice to visit Uganda with the likes of Scott Lively.  To quote a famous guy, he’s reaping what he’s sown.

(h/t GayUganda)

*Looka me, Jeremy, I made a pun before you did.

**How would you go about defending a man who handed a gun to genocidal maniacs anyway?  I wouldn’t know where to start.

*** This, of course, is why Christian Conservatives are opening so many franchise operations in the Third World.  They know, on some level, that their fight is lost among the educated.  They have nothing to offer thinking people.  So they scamper away to impoverished nations and fill their heads with their propagandistic lies in a desperate attempt to get there before modernity does.  It’s cynical, it’s manipulative, and it’s immoral, because they prey on people who actually do need their help, but instead they offer brainwashing and the distracting opiate of false hope.  Meanwhile, poverty continues, disease continues, hunger continues, AIDS gets worse (often because of the policies promoted by the Christian Conservatives).  It’s really beyond me how these people are able to claim moral authority over anything anymore.

Michael wrote last night about the piece in the New York Times about the Uganda “Kill the Gays” bill and its American Evangelical supporters.  The piece exposes the inciting role Don Schmierer of Exodus played in the inception of this bill, and showcases his mewling attempts to deny any responsibility for what’s now happening in Uganda.  Schmierer’s statements can be summed up as “We was fooled!”  That’s right, they’re just a few innocent, sweet ex-gay activists, and they’re just trying to help!  Give me a break.  Jim Burroway handily disposed of that notion in a piece last night.  If you haven’t read Jim’s piece, do.  I’ll wait.

What I want to draw attention to, though, is Amanda Marcotte’s piece on this, because she brings in some really important historical perspective on what Schmierer, Caleb Lee Brundige, and Scott Lively did on their little jaunt to Uganda, and she also makes an important point about the weak denials and condemnations they (and Rick Warren) have issued, now that the American press is paying attention:

Right now, Rick Warren and company’s slow-moving denunciations of this law are due strictly to their desire to stay in the mainstream of American society, and have nothing to do with actual moral outrage.  After all, it’s an article of faith for the religious right that gay people “recruit” children because they can’t have their own.  There are so many assumptions bundled up in that—that gay people don’t have children, that children can be considered carbon copies of their parents, that homosexuality is something taught at the knee instead of a genuine expression of sexual desire—but I’d like to point out that what the accusation is, at its base, is a 21st century version of the blood libel. The traditional blood libel that was a big deal in medieval Europe was to accuse Jews of killing and eating Christian children.  Nowadays, the accusation has changed somewhat—now it’s that gays rape and recruit children—but the structure is basically the same, which is to say that the hated group is constructed as a cult that feeds on your children.  And the religious right believes this stuff.  (…)

The point is that the blood libel exists to justify extreme violence against the targeted group, painting them as child-thieves who inflict a society’s most dreaded crimes (molestation, cannibalism) on the children, and by doing so, take them away from the parents.  So when the people who perpetuate this myth about gays and lesbians play innocent, we shouldn’t let them get away with it.

Exactly.  I’ve said several times in the past (I’ve actually said it today) that there is no fundamental difference between religious extremists in the West and those in Uganda, or in the Middle East, etc.  They look different to the untrained eye, simply because they can’t get away with what they really want to do in the West.  Modern society won’t allow it.  So of course they’re trying to cover their lily-white behinds in the American press, for their own followers, and for the rest of the American public which still thinks of Warren as the Purpose-Driven Cuddle Monster.  These people have a narrative to uphold, and it’s a narrative that is in sharp contrast to their actual beliefs and actions:  That Evangelical Christianity is primarily about love and family and patriotism and lots of other Pollyanna BS that plays well with the Fort Worth crowd.  And for many Evangelical Christians, it is about those things.  They may be misled about a lot of things, but I highly doubt that the average Saddleback member is jonesing to kill gay people.

But their leaders?  As Amanda says in the piece, they’re not off the hook for this one.  Growing up in That World, and now analyzing it from the perspective of one who knows the language, I’ve often noticed that the people who follow these leaders are, for the most part, fairly decent human beings, but that they have no idea what their leaders are really like.  (And of course, when you point it out, most of them retreat into their shells or stick their fingers in their ears.)

The blood libel is not new.  But it’s taken far too long for the LGBT community and its supporters to realize that the tactics of Warren, Lively, Schmierer, Brundige, Richard Cohen, etc., are indeed the modern-day version of this age-old Christian tradition.  And the ex-gay element is just more delicious icing on the cake for those who promote this blood libel.  Elsewhere in the piece, Amanda puts it this way:

When an ex-gay claims that gays recruit by raping children, wingnuts can feel good about themselves, because they say, “Hey, he should know.” But of course, that’s simply not true, because the religious right has created huge incentives for so-called ex-gays to lie about their previous (and often ongoing) sexual behavior and habits, in order to keep the esteem and the paychecks coming.

Sick and sad, but true.  What a feat these religious extremists have accomplished — they have an entire “ex-gay” industry devoted to making gay people hate themselves so much that they’ll travel thousands of miles around the world to confess the sins of which they’ve been brainwashed to believe they’re guilty.

For these leaders to now claim that they couldn’t have imagined that things would play out the way they have is simply more disingenuous lying.  They know what they’re doing.

Shame on all of them.